The
Faversham Area Tourism Association (FATA) was established in April 2004 by tourism professionals from the area who felt that Faversham’s tourism businesses had not been best served by being promoted as one of the delights of Swale alongside Sittingbourne and the Isle of Sheppey.
FATA is sure the area will fare better by marketing its own distinct product.
FATA is devoted solely to promoting and developing tourism in and around the Faversham area, enabling us to focus on the distinctive products and high quality tourism offer that exists in the town and surrounding area.
FATA grew out of the Faversham Area Visitor Attractions’ Forum (see below) and as an important part of the Faversham Enterprise Partnership (FEP) initiative, a pro-business support organisation working to strengthen the commercial life of the Faversham area, including tourism.
Membership of FATA is open to any individuals, organisations or companies in the Faversham area who are interested in the objectives of the Association.
The Faversham Area Tourism Association (FATA) has been established in recognition that tourism is vital to the economy of the town and surrounding area, and that it is an under-developed local resource.
The area has a great deal of tourism potential – it boasts a rich diversity of excellent attractions, an equally varied range of accommodation as well as many superb food and drink outlets and plays host to a fine programme of special events.
FATA will seek to build upon recent successes and extend collaborative marketing to include other sectors of the local tourism industry.
The Association’s primary concern will be the promotion of tourism solely around Faversham and will focus on the distinctive products and
high quality tourism offer that exists in and around the town.
The town’s charm, history and heritage combined with the delightful countryside that surrounds it, not to mention easy accessibility and proximity to London means that we are ideally placed to exploit the growing short-break market, particularly for cash-rich, time-poor workers from London and the M25 corridor.
The association is also drawing on branding and marketing work carried out by Faversham Town Council’s community based Town Marketing Group (TMG).
The TMG built up considerable experience in defining the area’s positive tourism offer and producing and distributing promotional material, including area specific literature.
The channel ports, international passenger station and “honey pot” destination of Canterbury also provide opportunities that the Association will, in time, explore.
Focusing on what’s best for Faversham may mean that there is collaboration with Canterbury, Whitstable and Ashford (for example) rather than promoting the town alongside Sittingbourne and the Isle of Sheppey to fit in with arbitrary Local Authority boundaries that have no relevance to tourists.
For much of the time accommodation and attractions are running at less than full capacity so the initial aim is to improve the usage of existing facilities.
As customer expectations continue to increase, quality will be a key factor and FATA will promote only those accommodation outlets that participate in Visit Britain’s approved grading scheme while member attractions will be encouraged to join the Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance Service. (Two local attractions – Farming World and Shepherd Neame Brewery Tours have already achieved “Quality Assured” status).
FATA aims to embrace all those involved with local tourism, so as well as accommodation providers and attractions, there are membership categories for retail businesses, food and drink outlets and events as it is recognised that all of these contribute to (and benefit from) tourism in the area. Indeed, events are an excellent way of increasing business in the short term, attracting first-time visitors who will then return, and raising the profile of the area.
Partnership working will be key to the Association’s success. FATA is a natural partner of the Faversham Enterprise Partnership (FEP) and co-ordinates its activities with those of the FEP and the TMG.
Furthermore, the Association works jointly with the Faversham Website Trust so that FATA members are featured on the website and www.faversham.org is promoted in FATA publications.
If your business or organisation could benefit from more visitors then join FATA today.
For 2005, the Association, working in partnership with the TMG and FEP has spearheaded several key marketing campaigns.
The first of these is the What’s On leaflet which, thanks to FATA’s input has been given a facelift for 2006 to bring it in to the Faversham “family” of leaflets. What is more over 30 special events in and around the town are listed; up on the 20 or so featured last year. Each event is a reason to visit the area and the leaflet includes references to the Area Guide and the Faversham Website.
Many of our attraction members are looking to attract the group market so FATA has co-ordinated a Group Marketing Campaign that has built upon the success of projects undertaken in previous year’s by the Faversham Visitor Attractions Forum. Faversham was represented at 4 regional travel trade shows and also achieved excellent exposure in the January issue of Group Travel Organiser magazine with a 4 page feature.
The Area Accommodation and Attractions Guide is another fantastic example of what can be achieved by partnership working if all the partners are committed to doing rather than talking. Again FATA was the lead partner and we have received a lot of positive feedback since the Guide was published. Of course, printing the leaflets is only half of the job and we have also arranged professional distribution throughout Kent as well as in Essex Sussex, Surrey, South London and the M25 corridor to tap into the short-break market.
In addition, we have produced and distributed Guest Information Folders to all accommodation providers. These contain details of attractions, pubs, restaurants and events so should help guests make the most of their stay and perhaps entice one or two back for more!
Objects and Benefits
The main objectives of the new association are to:
- Promote tourism in Faversham and the surrounding area
- Increase visitor numbers and to increase the length of visits
- Generate increased income for the area
- Support the activities of the Faversham Enterprise Partnership (the FEP) that benefit the area's tourism businesses.
To achieve these aims FATA intends to:
- Promote our area through attendance at national and regional group travel exhibitions
- Promote our area through attendance at national and regional destination exhibitions
- Assist joint marketing and promotions between association members
- Produce and distribute accommodation and attractions leaflets and guides
- Seek grants to help build up our businesses
- Work with the Faversham area website to generate more tourism activity
- Promote awareness of the Faversham area through the increased use of our distinctive brand
- Help currently ungraded properties with the practicalities of grading
- Carry out professional market research to establish what target audiences we should be looking to attract
- Carry out market research on how our businesses can best operate, for example on how the patterns of occupancy of our accommodation
- Work with local agencies such as the FEP, the Faversham Chamber of Commerce, the Tourist Information Centre and Swale Tourism Association (STA) to boost our businesses.
Steering Committee
The day to day business of the FATA is be conducted by a Steering Committee in accordance with the Association’s objectives, and formulate policy for consideration at members’ meetings of the Association and by the Faversham Enterprise Partnership. The Steering Committee is formed from members, elected at members’ meetings of the Association.
Membership and How to Join
Membership of the Faversham Area Tourism Association is open to any individuals, orgnanisations or companies in the Faversham Area who support the objectives of the Association.
To find out about our membership packages, current subsriptions rates and how to join, please contact l
ucy@faversham.org tel 01795 539339